


Not Alone (Sirius Black)

by StudentRevolutionary



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marauders, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 19:25:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7327252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudentRevolutionary/pseuds/StudentRevolutionary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote this on wattpad in 2011 and I've recently decided to edit, so this is the edited version!<br/>Love does not begin the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a painful war; love, in my case, is growing up. My name is Courtney Templeton and I was happy staying out of relationships that would just end in tears. I was a great witch with great friends and amazing family. I was never planning on looking for love, I wouldn't mind that much if I was alone at forty. That was, of course, until Sirius Black comes along and the fine line that lies between love and hate, disappears and merges them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Alone (Sirius Black)

I realised long ago that no matter how badly your heart is broken, the world doesn't stop for your grief, your pain or your sorrow. Nor will it slow down through the joys you experience. The world carries on turning, ignoring your cries and your laughter, ignoring your pleas and your prayers. The world will never answer them; but that's just my opinion. The world is selfish. One opinion will never matter against millions of others. Two opinions will never be heard before the billion others. It goes on. No matter how hard you fight to be heard, you never will be.

My name is Courtney Templeton. I won’t tell you my life story here and now – that’s for later – but I will tell you that 1976 was the start of the most dramatic periods of my entire life.

"Courtney!" My mother's voice rifled up the stairs.  
"Yes?" I called back, groggily, wanting to turn over and sleep.  
"The Potters will be here in a minute."  
"Coming." The Potters. Our families were close and I had known James since birth. As annoying as he could be, I still loved him all the same. How could I not after this long? He was the best friend I’d possibly ever had. Our dads used to joke about how  
we would grow up and get married and have the sweetest children. Yet out of character for my dad to joke about such things, this was ongoing until the impossible happened. I, however, never saw James that way; we were more like argumentative siblings. Due to conflicts between James’ friends and I, I never really spoke to him in school. I’d always have to wait until Christmas to actually speak to him, and even then time was scarce; I missed him. I also had Lily, who couldn't stand the sight of James. I had tried to convince her he wasn't that bad but it didn't really work:  
"Not that bad? Oh please, he's an arrogant toe-rag who only thinks about himself and his precious friends." She had said. Lily had then gone on to insult all four boys in turn only laying off of Remus a tiny bit. I had to admit that he was the only one who’d never insulted either of us. I decided to give up on convincing her and just tolerated her hatred for him from then on.

I groaned as my hairbrush pulled out a good chunk of my hair. James had advised me, time and time again, to start brushing it before I went to bed but I never listened, which led to my hair never quite sitting right and taking half an hour to brush. Honestly, I probably should have just cut it all off, but I’d never had the heart. Besides, giving up would just give James motive to tease me; I could not, under any circumstances, have messy hair in front of James Potter.

"Ok, the Potters are bringing one of James's school friends with them so I want you to play nice alright?" My mum told me after I had bounded down the stairs and stumbled into the kitchen. I groaned at the news. I sincerely hoped it was Remus; Peter scared me, quite frankly, and Sirius was just an out and out bully. "Courtney..." My mum said, in a warning tone.  
"Fine." I told her, knowing full well the chances of me playing nice if aggravated were slim. Knowing James and his little friends, I’d probably be aggravated a lot. Summer was meant to be fun and relaxing, not awful and terrifying. "Courtney, promise you'll keep that temper of yours under control."  
"I promise I'll try." I replied, my lips twitching at the corners. My mum smiled too, knowing that she wasn't going to get anything else from me. I strolled into the empty living room, the smile still on my face. "When's Dad home?"  
"Whenever he walks through the door." My mum called back to me absent-mindedly. She never really had an answer, so I don’t know why I still asked every day. My dad was a wizard; my mum was a muggle. She had absolutely no idea how anything in the Wizarding World worked, leading to oblivion about how long Dad would be at work every day. I walked past the mantelpiece, looking at each photo. There were various ones of all four of us: me, my parents and my brother. The biggest one was of me and my brother on the cliff side, by the sea, only a short walk from my house. My hair was blowing onto the side of my face and my brother kept looking at the camera and laughing. I laughed too. Me and my brother were close. He was a soldier at the time and he went to war straight after leaving Hogwarts. He wasn't interested in any wizarding professions (except being a quidditch chaser, but he swore that he wasn’t good enough to go pro; he definitely was) so, instead, he went to war. I constantly looked forward to the next time he’d be coming home; he was allowed home at Christmas this year. 

My thoughts about my brother were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. "I'll get it." My mother called. I heard the door open and my mum greet the Potters.  
"Where's Court?" James asked, immediately, as if he’d missed me as much as I’d missed him. Impossible, I thought. James didn’t miss anyone. "In there." My mum answered, probably accompanied by some extravagant hand gesture. I turned to see James standing in the doorway. He didn't look much different to the last time I saw him; his black hair pointing in all directions (he’d deemed it ‘fashionable’ and ‘sexy’), his glasses askew, a grin plastered across his face. We looked at each other for a moment before he crossed the room in a single stride and engulfed me in a hug.

"You've grown!” I said, disappointedly trying, and failing, to reach his head to ruffle his hair. Why was everyone growing except me? I’d given up all hope of growing back in fourth year when James shot up and I just… didn’t. "You haven’t," He teased. We both laughed and I found my eyes wandering over to the photo of me and Michael, wondering what he'd say if he was here. He’d probably join in with our dads, laughing about how James and I were ‘meant to be’. "When's Mike home next?"  
"Christmas."  
"Only four months then?"  
"I see your maths has improved." I teased in a faux-baby voice. James shook his head, with a smile before pulling my head under his arm so I was trapped in an inescapable headlock.

I struggled to get free and it wasn't until I bit his arm that he released me. We stood laughing for a while, recovering from our short wrestling match. When we'd stopped laughing I heard other people's laughter coming from the kitchen.  
"Which one have you brought?" I asked, almost dreading the response.  
"You nervous about NEWTs?" He asked, changing the subject and I simply raised my eyebrows in return, waiting.  
"What?"  
"Which one?" I pressed.  
"Remus." He admitted and relief rushed through me.  
"Really? Oh, that’s fantastic!"  
"Well, if you mean who did I bring in an emotional connection kind of way then -"  
"What do you mean that’s fantastic?!” A voice screeched, playfully, from the doorway and there stood Sirius Black in all of his smug glory, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth while he casually leaned against the door frame. I frowned at James; he knew my opinions on Sirius and they were not undeserved. He brought out sides of  
James that I didn't like and had an insufferable. He made me not want to be around my best friend – my brother. He was a bully and someone I tried my hardest to  
avoid. 

"Sirius, Courtney Templeton. Courtney, Sirius Black." James introduced us with a grin but I could see the fear in his eyes. He knew I'd be moaning about it not being Remus soon enough.  
"Hi." Sirius greeted me, his eyes smouldering into mine.  
"Hi." I reluctantly responded, grimacing. Silence passed between the three of us, none of us knowing what to say.  
"I'm going for a swim." I said slowly, wanting out of the awkward first meetings.  
"Swim?" Sirius asked, just as I was about to pass through the doorway.  
"Yeah, there's this really cool mini cliff outside that you jump off and the water is freezing. We always said jumping off of it was what got us put into Gryffindor didn't we, Court?" James explained excitedly, grateful to have something to cut  
through the ice.  
"Yeah, it's fun." I agreed before walking out.  
"I want to see this." Sirius laughed from behind me, though thankfully his voice didn't follow me.

I walked along the porch and down the steps. We had quite a pretty house. It was big but not too big – its decorations were Mum’s pride and joy. I walked along the  
grass bare-foot, loving the feel of the grass tickling my toes. I walked right round to the back garden. That was where the best bit was: the view. There were distant hills and a beach not too far away, but the sea was what made it so picturesque, so steady and constant and waiting to be disturbed. I removed my shirt, leaving me in my bra and some sweat shorts. Come to think of it, I should have gone upstairs and changed before coming here; I didn’t really mind if James saw me like this (he’d seen me half naked a million times before), but Sirius would never let me hear the end of it. I then walked up to the cliff's edge and let my toes grip the very edge. The familiar ache for adrenaline surged through my body; I needed to jump. I took a breath in and closed my eyes, keeping my centre of gravity firmly where it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for getting this far!! It's been a long time since I've revisited this story, so I hope you enjoyed it. Drop me a comment!!


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